The Last Candidate
by ImmaBeatYouWithaCrowbar
Summary: Pre-TAE. When Jeb disappears, Max quickly realizes that the flock is in need of a new leader.


**A/N: Well, I felt really bad about not updating U and A for so long, so I decided that I owed my readers something. Also, I couldn't seem to get this idea out of my head! So, remember, criticism and reviews are always welcome!**

Jeb was gone, and he wasn't coming back.

Fang and I had kept up the search for the past few weeks, but we had both given up hope the night that Angel had woken us both up, crying and telling us that Jeb wasn't going to return. Angel was never wrong…but how could we just give up so easily? The man had saved us from the hellhole called the school two years ago. How could we stop looking if there was just the slightest chance that we could save the man who had done so much for us?

As could be expected, though, every day we would all come back empty-handed.

Angel was right. Jeb wasn't going to return. Without Jeb, we were going to need a new leader.

The new leader couldn't very well be Angel. She was the only one of us who didn't have any memories of the school. She was just so innocent, which always made her the one that we all tried our hardest to protect. Not only that, but she was only four years old, much too young to be a leader.

It couldn't be Gazzy, either. The kid was tough, but only to a certain extent. He wouldn't be able to sustain the weight of being leader. He was also too carefree and goofy to take on such a serious position. The age factor had its role, too, with him only being six years old.

Jeb was a kind man, and even though he wouldn't leave a single mutant out of the mission, he would never allow Gazzy or Angel to command. I couldn't allow it, either.

Even with those two out, the flock still needed a leader.

I landed on a tree branch. I was as far away from the E-house as possible without being _too_ far away. I looked down at the ground, the patches of green and brown that was stories below me.

Nudge wasn't a very likely candidate. She was brave, and she never complained during a mission, but she just didn't have what it took to be a leader. She had a fatal habit of freezing up that Jeb had never been able to break her from, and her attention was too easily diverted. How could I let someone like that - let alone a _nine-year-old_ like that - lead?

The next person to come to mind would have been Iggy. I didn't think that he would fair well as the leader, either. He had so many qualities of a strong person, despite his short-temperedness. The major thing he had going against him was that he was _blind,_ and that wasn't even his fault.

That brought us down to two candidates. One of the two would have to step up to the plate, because the flock needed a leader.

Fang wouldn't have been a bad leader. He was strong, determined, smart…he was everything that you could want for a leader. The only problem was, I could see it in his eyes just how badly he didn't want to have to take on that responsibility. He didn't want to be the one entrusted with all of our lives, the one that was to blame if any or all of us died. If there was anything he could've have wished for, it was that he wouldn't have to carry that burden.

That left one candidate, and the flock _needed_ a leader.

The last one left was the one that could shut her mind off in battle and keep all worries at bay. She was the one who never over-thought things, who was just too determined to ever lose. She was the only one who would be able to hold up such a responsibility without a waver or a complaint.

I swallowed thickly, then pursed my lips. I held out my arms like I was being crucified, then let myself fall forward.

My braid flew high above me, and some stragglers were whipping across my face. The wind tore apart around me as I fell and fell and fell…and when it finally came to the point where I had to spread my wings or crash into the ground, I had half a mind to let myself keep falling.

The flock needed a leader.

Biting my bottom lip so hard it bled, I snapped out my wings. Immediately, I was yanked up as if by parachute, and my wings felt like they'd been torn out of their sockets.

I flew higher and higher into the air. I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my fists to tightly that my nails dug crescents into the soft flesh of my palms.

I opened my eyes and landed on the very same branch. I clung to the trunk as if for dear life as the tears streaked down my face. I rested my forehead against the bark and screamed at the top of my lungs. I clutched the bark so tightly that it drew blood, and I just screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

The flock was looking for a leader, and they had their eyes on me.

There was no way I could refuse.


End file.
